


Home Is Where

by araliya



Category: Glee RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-13 20:22:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14755685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/araliya/pseuds/araliya
Summary: How finding a house together means a lot more than you would think.





	Home Is Where

Title and lyrics from [Home](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D8mVbdjec0pA&t=NzBhY2ZjNzdmMjkwMjU3YWIxODc0ZjIwNTAzMmQyYjRhMTRmNDZiMCxpZ3lJbW5ZNQ%3D%3D&b=t%3Aqovu990NqfKEhXfG-SI8vg&p=https%3A%2F%2Faraliyaintheskywithdiamonds.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F174253426222%2Fhome-is-where-a-crisscolfer-fic) by Gabrielle Aplin

 

 

 

_(take me away to someplace real)_

 

The key appears so soon on his key chain that Darren doesn’t even have time to be surprised. It’s a small, grey, nondescript thing, unremarkable enough to unlock a toolbox or a garden shed or a closet.

 

It had sure felt that way, when Chris had pressed it into the palm of his hand one night, kissing him firmly and finally at the door. Darren had accepted it blindly, too distracted by the sight and sound and smell of  _Chris, Chris, Chris,_ to have it later fall out of his pocket when he’d been doing the laundry.

 

Darren had felt the weight of it in his palm, felt the weight of all of the words they’d left unspoken that night, and wondered whether it was normal to move so fast, so soon. He’d chalked it up to the fact that it wouldn’t be ideal for either of them to be spotted anywhere near each other’s residences, and brushed it aside.

 

If, later that night, he fell asleep to the word  _forever_  in his mind, it didn’t mean anything. Nothing at all.

 

_(home is where your heart is set in stone)_

 

When Darren moves in, it doesn’t feel like it- not really. It seems only natural to climb into Chris’ BMW, exhausted from the full day of work, and drive back to Chris’ place.

 

It’s only when Darren tells people he’s going home, and realises he’s talking about Chris’ house, does he do a double-take. It’s true- his own apartment is empty and forlorn, only visited when Darren runs out of clothes, the air of it so unfamiliar and unwelcoming that it feels alien to stay a second longer- to see the bed he hasn’t slept in for months.

 

Darren says  _home_  and he thinks of cyan blue eyes and ultramarine blue sheets, a teal blue gate that locks the two of them away from the rest of the world; the place where they can just  _be_.

 

_(and I'll bury my future behind)_

 

It’s a rather terrifying invasion of privacy that prompts the decision to move again.

 

Darren gets the call from Chris that afternoon, and he’s shaking so hard he can barely get the words out. Darren drops his work at the studio, doesn’t give his manager a second glance, and drives straight back home.

 

They sit on the bottom step of the staircase, Darren holding Chris (who’s still shivering), and they quietly discuss what they’ll do next. Chris wants to move, wants to make their house their own again, and it seems only natural that they talk about it like they’re moving together.

 

Darren stops paying the rent for his abandoned apartment and shoves what won’t fit at Chris’ into a storage container- to be unearthed once they have their own place.

 

_(as long as we're together, does it matter where we go)_

 

They go about it like giddy newlyweds- (though they won’t be, not for a couple of more years)- with the catalogues and the tours and the manic real estate agents.

 

The house becomes a mess of tape and boxes, and they blow off plans every night to sit on the living room floor and sort through yet another pile of belongings they’ve completely forgotten existed.

 

(Chris is forced to acknowledge the fact that he wouldn’t be out of place on an episode of Hoarders, and Darren laughs and changes the number of ideal storage rooms from one to three.)

 

After months of inspections and re-inspections, they find a place. The agent leaves them in the foyer with a set of keys, a binder full of paperwork, and the remote control for the gate.

 

They spend a solid minute in silence, staring at each other, before the keys and the binder slide onto the floor, to be later shoved out of the way by a stray elbow.

 

The living room is christened that night (Darren thanks god for the invention of carpets), and they fall asleep on the couch- the only piece of furniture in the house apart from the coat rack in the hall.

 

It’s sort of surreal, when Darren wakes up in the morning. All around them is emptiness, sunlight streaming in through the windows and warming their chilled bodies. Dust motes spiral through the air, winking when they hit the light.

 

“Good morning,” Darren murmurs, when he feels Chris shift in his arms.

 

Chris looks up at him, sleep-hazy and beautiful. “Welcome home,” he whispers.

 

Not long after, Darren writes a song about living in a cardboard box with the love of his life, and thinks he might be getting just a little bit soft.

 

_(take me away to some place real)_


End file.
